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Reform in 10 easy steps Source: Brad Bumsted, Tribune Review, STATE CAPITOL REPORTER, Sunday, November 13, 2005 Pennsylvania state legislators no longer can pay lip service to reform. But merely repealing the 16-percent-to-54 percent legislative pay hike approved July 7 won't go far enough to assuage an angry electorate. Groups and individuals angered by the now-infamous middle-of-the-night pay grab helped defeat Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro in Tuesday's retention election. Justice Sandra Schultz Newman survived but by a very narrow margin. Anti-pay groups targeted the justices, saying the high court acted as an "enabler" of the General Assembly by rubber-stamping key laws and ignoring proper procedure and constitutional prohibitions. The justices took the pay raise, which also provided salary increases for the judiciary and top executive branch employees. There now is a window for legislative reform unlike anything witnessed in this commonwealth's modern history. The pay hike was the symptom far from the root cause of the disease. We have an out-of-control Legislature that probably is the most expensive in the nation. There's virtually no transparency. Everything is leadership-controlled and -driven. Getting re-elected is legislative policy No. 1. Rules that interfere with expediency are cast aside. In addition to pending measures to repeal the pay hike, legislators are working on a package of general feel-good legislation to pacify the voters before the 2006 elections. It's not nearly enough. To get serious about reshaping the Legislature -- not to mention keeping their jobs -- the General Assembly should immediately hold public hearings and start moving bills to clean up its own houses, cut millions of dollars in waste and restore public trust in government. Here are some of the things that should be considered: * A constitutional convention controlled by ordinary citizens, not legislators. It could take up some of the items below * Term limits for state House and Senate members. Reduce the number of entrenched lawmakers -- compromised by the system -- who no longer recognize a bad thing even when they see it * Rotate top legislative leadership every two years. In other words, spread the power around and keep any one person from becoming, more or less, an emperor in his or her chamber, a la John Perzel, Bob Jubelirer and Bill DeWeese * Reduce the size of the Legislature. Cut the 253-member General Assembly in half and slash the bloated staff * End the lack of transparency. The state's Sunshine and Open Records laws, incredibly, don't even apply to the Legislature. They should start there and hold themselves to a higher standard than any others in state government * Enact tough lobbyist registration. Currently, lobbyists who work the House and governor's office are not required to file anything. Minimal disclosure is required by the Senate based on an internal rule. Who's lobbying whom and for how much? Who is being wined and dined? * Create some fairness in redistricting. It now is a blatantly political process geared toward incumbency protection. The use of computer models and true bipartisan cooperation would go a long way toward fixing it * End the taxpayer-financed newsletters and the slick "public service" announcements on cable TV. Let the campaigns pay for these self-promotional items * Reduce or eliminate the leadership's $135 million surplus. It's a slush fund. Some of it was used to allow legislators to take the raise early * Require a meaningful fiscal audit of the Legislature's spending (unlike the ongoing audits, which -- by legislative design -- mask how much money really is spent). Require more performance audits of state programs created by the Legislature. The time is right and ripe for these long-overdue reforms.